The Living Trust Advisor. Condon Jeffrey L.

my presentation would leave them entertained and edified.

      Yes, I was all full of myself. But that feeling was relatively short-lived.

      After the (yet another successful) presentation, a standing microphone was placed on the floor near the dais for those who wanted to ask questions. The line quickly formed and snaked to the ballroom entrance. I believe it was the fourth person in line who asked me this: “Mr. Condon. I just want to say that was a terrific talk, and I learned a lot. Can you tell me how you use the financial planner in your practice?”

      And this was my exact word-for-word response: “Ummm.. I.. uhhh.. I don’t really use the financial planner at all. Why would I?”

      Have you ever had the experience of being ostracized by a large gathering of people? You don’t want it. It’s the initial silence of incredulousness. Then the sounds of notebooks shutting, chairs backing away, barely disguised mutterings, and feet walking in a direction other than yours. The sight of faces who were moments before enraptured, now revealing disdain and disgust. The sudden feeling of warm sweat permeating throughout the body. I take great pride in making a great impression on my audience. Not just good, but great. But now I was doing the polar opposite.

      This was one of those times when the truth – that bringing the financial planner into the estate planning process had never before crossed my mind – was not the best response. The financial planner helps the client make money; the estate planning lawyer helps the client transfer that money to their children, grandchildren, and other heirs. Two separate worlds. And I assumed that financial planners believed likewise. But at that nightmarish moment – where I undid in 3 seconds the goodwill I had established in the previous 90 minutes with my inadvertent diminishment of the entire financial planning industry – I discovered that such an assumption was erroneous.

      There was no pulling up from this nosedive. The program ended with the en masse walkout. As I was about to trudge from the dais, the program coordinator stood in front of me, put his hands on my shoulders, and said, “Jeff, I can see you are about to go into a deep funk. But try to hear me. Instead of castigating you, I think they should be thanking you. You woke us up to the fact that your industry is totally in the dark about what we do and how we can be of service. What you said about not needing us – that should be our rallying cry to find ways to explain to you why and how you need us. Not as a reason to get out the tar and feathers.”

      Those words talked me off the ledge. But more important, they were the impetus for my awakening to the fact that the financial planner is integral to the estate-planning process. While the estate-planning lawyer rarely sees or communicates with his Living Trust clients, you, the financial planner, are on the front line of your clients’ lives. You are in touch with them at least every few months with calls, statements, emails, and invitations to seminars. You make, at least, annual inquires about their financial health and status, which, typically, beget a discussion of their latest family goings-on. Births of grandchildren. Graduations. Deaths. Children’s employment status. What’s going on with the “problem” child. As part of that discussion, you invariably bring up their estate planning – because you recognize that a sound plan to leave their wealth after death is just as important as the investment strategy that creates that wealth.

      So you ask the usual questions about your clients’ estate plan. Do they have one? If so, is it a Living Trust or a will? Was it prepared by an attorney? How old is it? When did they last have it reviewed? Does it speak to any of their current family dynamics and circumstances? And after this brief discussion, you advise them to see an attorney, which, most likely, will not be an easy sell. Why? Because your clients, like most people, are not accustomed to seeing lawyers. Most people go through almost their entire lives without anything “legal” happening to them. No divorces, arrests, lawsuits, or entity formations. Or, if your clients have had previous brushes with lawyers, those experiences may have been less than pleasant. Well, whether your clients go willingly or reluctantly, you, the financial planner, must strongly advise them to see an estate planning attorney about establishing or amending their Living Trust.

      Is that it? Do I think you are just the shill for the estate planning attorney? Absolutely not. You are part of the estate planning team. While the attorney sits at his desk, you sit in front of your clients. You’re there with them.. and their Living Trust. With the Financial Alerts peppered throughout this book, you will be able to confidently sift through your clients’ Living Trust and zero in on certain sections that could inadvertently cause harm to your clients’ children and their relationships with each other. These alerts will give you the knowledge you need to engage in a productive conversation about the effect and ramifications of certain provisions that they may have never before considered.

      Your clients don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know whether their Living Trust will solve inheritance problems.. or create them. However, after you read this book – and after your clients regale you with their current family circumstances – you will have the ability to recognize whether certain provisions in their Living Trust should be changed or removed to ensure that your clients’ Living Trust applies to those family conditions.

      These Financial Alerts do not ask you to practice law. They are educating you on recognizing problems. As my father taught me, 95 percent of the solution to any problem is recognizing the problem in the first place. Once you are able to point out the unwanted or unintended ramifications of certain provisions of your clients’ Living Trust, then your advice for them to see the lawyer is not just lip service to make you look good or protect your back.

      Without you first reviewing your clients’ Living Trust.. and without you first having taken the tour of your clients’ financial and family lives.. and without you looking at important provisions in your clients’ Living Trust in the context of their present circumstances, it is highly unlikely they will ever see a lawyer for a Living Trust review and fix.

      Maybe this isn’t a traditional part of the financial advisor job description; still, it’s an important function that helps to maintain family harmony in the inheritance arena, which can only enhance the valuable services you bring to your clients.

      The Big Game: Living and Dying with Your Living Trust

      The purpose of this book is quite simple. I want you to think of me as your Living Trust coach. Like any coach, I want to train you so you will be ready to play the big game, which, in this case, is living with your Living Trust with no financial, emotional, or practical upheaval in your life, and dying with a Living Trust that will adequately and effectively provide for your spouse, children, charities, and other heirs and beneficiaries with a minimum of conflict, diversion, tax, and expense.

      • Like any football or basketball game, this big game takes place in a special arena.. the inheritance arena. The players are you, your spouse, your Living Trust lawyer, your assets, your children, your other beneficiaries, and, perhaps, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And like any game, there is a warm-up period (which is where you are right now), four quarters of play, and a cool-down period. Think of The Living Trust Advisor as your playbook that describes how to play the big game during those different periods, which are: The First Quarter: Establishing Your Living Trust.

      • The Second Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust during the Lifetimes of You and Your Spouse.

      • The Third Quarter: Living with Your Living Trust after the Death of Your Spouse.

      • The Fourth Quarter: Dying with Your Living Trust.

      • Postgame: Review and Lessons Learned.

      The big game begins the moment the concept of doing your Living Trust pops in your mind. That is when the whistle blows to start play. It ends when both you and your spouse have died and your Living Trust assets are in the hands of your children or other beneficiaries.

      Between the beginning and end of the big game, though, there is a lot that happens.

      • There is the selection of the Living Trust lawyer.

      • There is the understanding of the nuts and bolts of the Living Trust document.

      • There is the allocation of the assets – real estate, stocks, bank accounts, brokerage assets, businesses,